ENDNOTES

Okay, I know this is technically against the site rules. But people had questions, so I thought the best place to answer them would be an author's notes section after the last chapter. Hopefully it will survive at least long enough for the usual readers to read!

This story was conceived to answer some questions I had at the end of the movie, concerning the lack of characters who logically should have been at least mentioned – presumably to avoid confusing viewers only familiar with the 1939 movie – but most importantly, to answer one question: in the light of Theodora's story, how could the Wizard send Dorothy to kill the Wicked Witch of the West in cold blood?

Different fanfic writers have answered this question differently; in particular, I recommend readers to also check out DhampyrX2's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which takes the Theodora/Wicked Witch plot in a different but very interesting direction.

My solution came to me when I was thinking how Ozma, one of the main characters in Baum's Oz book series, could possibly fit into the story told by OTGAP, and saw the poster with Theodora in her red adventure outfit. And something clicked in my brain.

So, the ultimate goal of the story was to set up the stage for Baum's books, which – alas! – is different from the usual goal of a story, namely, telling a story. This explains its sketchy, timeskip-laden nature, for which I apologize.

Continuity: Chapter 1

The Golden Cap is from Baum's first book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was not in the 1939 movie. The Wicked Witch of the West used it three times to command the Winged Monkeys: once to take over the Winkie Country (in backstory), once to repeal the Wizard (also in backstory), and once to defeat Dorothy and her friends (in the actual book). It is this second use that we see here, in this chapter, though the Wizard's motivation for fighting her in the first place turns out to be different.

Continuity: Chapter 2

This chapter tries to unite together various sketchy and contradictory backstories that are given in different books and the movie as well.

Pastoria is the book name of the former King of Oz overthrown by the Wicked Witches. The books are somewhat confused about whether he's Ozma's father or grandfather, so in this story he's a bit of both – or neither, depending on how you see it.

Lurline, in the books, is the fairy queen who originally enchanted Oz to be a magic land. She's not related to Pastoria, belongs to a different and much earlier time period, and provides a second, contradictory origin story for Ozma. Yes, it's a continuity headache. Here, I tried to somewhat reconcile the two origins while also explaining what happened to the Witches' mother, at the cost of playing really loose with source material.

The main problem to work around is that the movie made the witches the late king's daughters, which was not in the books. While it justifies Theodora's claim to the throne, and her plea to Oscar to make her his queen, it doesn't explain why Glinda doesn't claim the throne herself. It isn't a problem if you consider only the movie by itself, but it's a problem for things to come. So my story provides a justification of sorts – both for Glinda and for Locasta.

Mombi, the former Wicked Witch of the North, is the main antagonist of Baum's second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz.

Locasta... okay, this is a bit complicated. In the first book, there are two Good Witches. The Good Witch of the North is the one who visits Dorothy in Munchkin Country and directs her to the Wizard (apparently not knowing that he is a fake). Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, appears near the end as the ruler of Quadling Country and tells Dorothy how to use the Silver Shoes to return home. The 1939 movie merged them into a single character: Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

In OTGAP, Glinda is the Good Witch of the South, like in the book, while the Good Witch of the North is... conveniently never mentioned. I presume it was done to avoid complicating matters, but that meant I had to explain where she was during the events of OTGAP. She's not named in Baum's books, and doesn't even appear after the first one apart from a brief cameo in The Road to Oz. Baum, however, named her Locasta in the musical version, so I went with that.

There are also some retcons here to better line up with the movie, for example concerning the nature of aging and death in Oz, but also the identities of the Wicked Witches. Most importantly, in my version, Evanora and Theodora are not the originai Wicked Witches of the East and West, respectively. In the fourth book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, Ozma explains to the Wizard that the Land of Oz was once divided between four Wicked Witches, who banded together to depose the king – but by the time the Wizard arrived, Glinda and the Good Witch of the North had overthrown the Wicked Witch of the South and Mombi, respectively. This is what happens in my backstory too, but it's not the whole backstory.

Continuity: Chapter 3

I give the name Gingema here for the previous Wicked Witch of the East, killed by Evanora. The name comes from Alexander Volkov's The Wizard of the Emerald City, a Russian adaptation in which Gingema is the Wicked Witch killed by Ellie's (Dorothy's) house.

Glinda's supposedly lie-detecting necklace is from The Marvelous Land of Oz; she uses it to force Mombi to tell the truth. I saw that as morally problematic by modern standards, so in my version it's just bluff.

Continuity: Chapter 4

The Water of Oblivion is...

Okay, the Water of Oblivion is probably the most gross, morally repugnant, story-killing and overall appalling plot device ever introduced by Baum – in his usual fashion, as a deus ex machina to solve the problem of the week in the sixth book, The Emerald City of Oz.

In that book, Glinda says she created it hundreds of years ago to depose a wicked King of Oz. It didn't make sense given Glinda's backstory in OTGAP, so I gave her a different motivation for creating it.

In my opinion, it's best quietly forgotten by spin-off writers, along with the other three story-killing deus ex machina plot devices: the Magic Belt, the Magic Picture and the Book of Records. (Note that when Baum doesn't want the plot to be resolved in two seconds in The Lost Princess of Oz, he makes these unavailable – for a reason!) The only reason I introduce it in the first place is because it serves a story purpose, and the out-of-universe reason I made it hidden is to explain why Evanora didn't use it in the movie.

In hindsight, I created a continuity error: in the book where it's introduced, Dorothy guesses that it's the fountain she saw on palace grounds along the way when going to visit the Wizard for the first time, while in this version it stays hidden at least until Ozma takes the throne. I'm not correcting it, because seriously, what? The Wizard had such a powerful artifact in his palace (which is supposed to have been built by him in the books...) and not only never mentioned it before, but left it in open display with little more than a vague "do not touch" warning label? And Dorothy manages to recite the warning from memory despite only seeing it for a few seconds who knows how many months ago? None of that makes sense, even by Oz standards.

Continuity: Chapter 5

China Country is not actually OTGAP's invention: it comes from the first book, but was omitted from the 1939 movie. The other little enclaves of Quadling Country (Bunnybury and Utensia) are from The Emerald City of Oz.

The China Girl from the movie is, in this chapter, established to be the same character as the China Princess whom Dorothy meets in the book. However, in the book, it is said the china people would become mute, inanimate dolls if taken out of their country. The movie contradicts that, and I think it's for the best – it's just too gruesome.

The Master Tinker is implied to be the future creator of the Tin Woodman, which is a popular fan theory.

The alternate names Locasta lists for herself are names given to the Good Witch of the North by writers other than Baum.

The Magic Picture was originally introduced in Baum's third book, Ozma of Oz, as means for Ozma to look after Dorothy when she's out of Oz, and save her when she falls in trouble. Later it became a magical spying cam that could show anyone and anything. Yay, Big Brother is watching you! To avoid dissonance with modern moral standards, I placed an important limitation on it here.

It is also explained here why the Royal Army of Oz consists of exactly one person in the first two books. Faramant and Din Gior are names given to the Guardian of the Gates and the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, respectively, in Volkov's Russian version. I don't mention here if the green glasses exist in this continuity, but I imagine they don't: there's no need for them, as the Emerald City predates the Wizard and is actually green without the need for deception.

Continuity: Chapter 6

Locasta and Mombi's adventures here are made up by me, and their sole purpose is to remove them from Oz for the movie's timeframe.

The Land of Ev is from the third book, Ozma of Oz, which also explains what happened to King Evoldo and his family (hint: it's not a nice fate), and what is that place where Mombi disappeared in the mountains (hint: it's nowhere good).

Ozma's disappearance is portrayed differently here than in the books. In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Mombi claims that the Wizard paid her three visits and deliberately gave her baby Ozma, so she could hide the true heir who could one day pose a threat to his rule. This was written before Baum revised his characterization of the Wizard to be more like what we see in the movie, so I have no qualms about contradicting it – the Wizard of OTGAP and the later books would never do something so despicable!

Continuity: Chapter 7

Tippetarius "Tip" is the protagonist of the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz – the same one that introduces Mombi. In the end, he learns that he's actually Princess Ozma, whom Mombi turned into a boy as an infant. Ozma is then restored to her real form and takes the throne.

A reader has asked me why Locasta doesn't recognize Tip as Ozma here, considering she knows what Theodora looked like. The reason is simple: Glinda didn't recognize him in the book either; she was just as surprised as everyone when Mombi revealed who Tip really was. I imagine they look sufficiently different that the thought just wouldn't cross Locasta's or Glinda's mind; you'd have to have sufficient evidence to even suspect such an enchantment in the first place!

Continuity: Epilogue

Professor H.M. Wogglebug T.E. is also from the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz.

Chronologically, the epilogue takes place during the fourth book Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, in which, well, Dorothy and the Wizard return to Oz after leaving it in the first book – and the Wizard, this time, is there to stay.

One thing this epilogue does – something that got a reader confused, for which I, again, apologize – is establish an in-universe reason why the Wizard was regarded as more of a villain, usurper figure in the backstory of the second book, compared to all the other books. Twenty years is a long time, his secretiveness didn't work in his favor, and when he revealed his deception to the people of the Emerald City, I don't think they would be particularly thrilled by the discovery, and could have even felt betrayed and started spreading rumors about him. And someone like Tip/Ozma, who grew up in a rural part of the country, would be especially susceptible to hearsay.

So where now?

Well.. I'm probably done with Oz for the time being. I do have some story ideas, but ideas are cheap – and they wouldn't be connected to the movie, anyway.

Pairing Polychrome with a cynical, misanthropic water nymph, as a sort of comedic duo.

Exploring Ozma's gender identity. It's been done already, though.

"Trials of the Princess" – In which Ozma, having been freshly disenchanted from being Tip, has to prove her worth in tests of character before she can ascend to the throne.

But I doubt I'll get to writing more Oz stories. There isn't much of a "demand" for them, especially if they don't involve Dorothy and company. I feel like the themes I want to explore would best be raised in original fiction.